45 houses in the village of Dando-Caranzalem have no water supply for close to a week as the existing water pipeline has broken down. The villagers have now demanded immediate action as the problem is intolerable. John Gonsalves, a resident of Dando said, “The PWD is not helping at all. I have personally visited the office several times and no action has been taken, even after verbal assurance.” The villagers had demanded a new water pipeline for better supply of water to the village. However, there has been no action taken by the Government regarding the issue.
Gonsalves said, “Every time I go to the office, I am told that everything will be fixed, but for the past one year nothing has been done.” The villagers have demanded a new pipeline connection and have already met with the CCP commissioner. However, they have complained that the work process is very slow due to which they are facing an inconvenience on a large scale.
The villagers have also complained about the uneven roads in their village. They stated that the roads have been uneven for a very long time. All the stones/pebbles which were fixed on the road fifteen years back have come out and are causing problems now.
“Babush Monseratte (St Cruz MLA and defacto Taleigao MLA) assured me that these roads would be repaired but nothing has been done so far. For the last four years, the road has been like this. The concerned authority has failed to intervene and co-operate,” he noted.
They have also been notified that the street lights in the village have not been working for a long time due to which there are difficulties faced by the villagers.
The Dando villagers sought immediate action by the concerned department regarding the issue. They have also stated that if work is prolonged and no action is taken, they will stage protests against the department.
On speaking to Herald, a PWD official stated that the villagers have falsely accused the department of not cooperating with them. He said, “We have always been cooperating with them, right from when they alerted us about the problem. Also, we cannot just carry on with our work, we also have to see other aspects. Regarding this case we had to wait for the right time since there was road construction in progress at the site.” He stated that the villagers are at fault in the first place, as they broke the existing water pipeline with a JCB shovel without any supervision.
He also notified that the work will be completed as soon as a tapping point of the connection is detected. “Since it is an important part of the process of shifting the connection, we have to detect it first. As soon as we get it, the job will soon be finished. Only four days have passed and the work is in process.”
